


fire meet gasoline

by rosegoldblood



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Study, Chess, Explicit Language, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25722415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosegoldblood/pseuds/rosegoldblood
Summary: leo and annabeth play chess.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Leo Valdez
Kudos: 44





	fire meet gasoline

**Author's Note:**

> two geniuses playing chess, five feet apart cause theyre not straight

"you guys are _still_ playing?" piper groaned.

annabeth ignored her in favour of picking up her rook, only to set it back down on its square. leo, meanwhile, pulled the hem of his gloves over his wrists and smiled brightly. "yep!" he announced, as if it wasn't obvious. "and i'm winning, _duh._ "

"in your dreams," annabeth shot back, although her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. her bishop was pinned between his pawn and his knight, and she bit on her lip, trying to figure out whether to go offense or defense.

piper leaned over to scan the chessboard. she pointed at annabeth's rook, positioned a few squares away from one of leo's pawns. "you can kill that one," she suggested, but annabeth swatted her hand away. 

"if i take his pawn, he'll take my rook with his bishop, and that's not worth it," annabeth said, eyes darting to the pawn and rook in question to confirm. she considered about moving her own knight to trap him, but it was too much of a risk. definitely not worth it.

"'kay," piper grumbled, rolling her eyes and walking off. her dark brown hair, tied up into a ponytail with a scrunchie, swung behind her as she left. annabeth sighed and used her knight to get rid of one of leo's pawns, to which he pouted and cussed under his breath.

when he crossed his arms and propped his chin up on them, face level with the board, annabeth frowned. "don't jostle the pieces," she said, and leo let out an overexaggerated groan and huff. he moved his bishop slightly to the right and annabeth was quick to take it with her rook, only for it to be killed by one of leo's pawns.

"fuck," annabeth murmured, internally chastising herself for being too overzealous. "you're not all bad at this," she admitted. annabeth had played with her cabin-mates, first, but she'd managed to beat them all first try, though she had a sneaking suspicion they weren't really trying.

then it was percy, and although he wasn't terrible, he always chose the most obvious moves. obvious to her, at least. for anyone else, it might have been a challenge. but not for annabeth. he was too easy to manipulate and weave around, and after the five rounds they played annabeth had won all of them.

reyna provided a better challenge. a praetor. a strategist. the only problem was she had no idea how to play, and annabeth had to teach her first. she wasn't bad, but she was too new to the game, and annabeth still beat her fairly easily. annabeth wasn't a leader, but she had experience, playing ever since she had gotten to camp half-blood. maybe it was the practice. maybe it was her parentage.

either way, she was good. really good.

ever since the gaea war, she had trudged around trying to find someone who was just as good as she was, but much to her disappointment, there was no one she hadn't beaten. which inflated her ego and hubris (as if it needed inflating), but also made for boredom when she was too burnt out for architecture.

then leo got back from building machines and boats for the romans to make up for their horrid lack of a navy, and annabeth had thought, well, fuck it. if she was going to challenge everyone at camp to a game of chess, she'd challenge _everyone._ she was competitive like that.

" _thank_ you," leo fiddling with his pawn, "i mean, i only figured out how to play a few months ago -"

"seriously?" annabeth raised her eyebrows, calculating in her mind the dangers of taking his pawn, before deeming it safe and going for it. the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. she knew his history, no matter how much he disliked to talk about it. annabeth supposed between the arson and the dying he wouldn't have had any time to learn chess.

leo slouched over and nodded, pouting. "frank taught me," he said, blushing at the mention of frank, and annabeth narrowed her eyes. "it was kind of hard at first, but, you know." he poked at his own forehead, grinning slyly. "i have a _huge_ brain, so i got the hang of it quickly."

"bet mine's bigger," annabeth replied, and leo stopped staring at the board to laugh. he moved his bishop to take her knight, and she used her queen to take it. they relapsed into silence once again. "really, though. i've been playing for years. this is impressive. for you."

"for me, huh?" he teased, moving his queen much too close to annabeth's king for her comfort. she took leo's rook and he moved his queen a little closer. "check."

"i know," annabeth said irritably, and leo smirked. "don't get ahead of yourself." she rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the fact that leo wasn't the one getting ahead of himself. finally, she settled on moving her king to the right, to which he moved his queen to the right too. "we're seriously going to do this? fine."

leo stuck out his tongue at her next move. "i never really play with anyone else," he remarked, "there was frank, but i don't even have my chessboard. piper has one, i think. but she never wants to play." at this he drooped a little. "she says it's boring."

" _you_ said it was boring," annabeth deadpanned.

"yeah, but i didn't mean it," leo snapped, and annabeth raised her eyebrows at his sudden rudeness. he rubbed at his forehead. "sorry. she's just always spending time with jason, getting ready for the mission, and it's stressing me out. reminds me of the argo two."

annabeth softened. she knew leo didn't like being ignored or left out, and she especially knew he didn't like being reminded of the ship he'd been on before he _died._ "sorry. that sucks," she said in an attempt at comfort, and leo smiled. 

"it's okay," he said, knocking over her pawn with his own. she took that with her queen. "i know she cares about me. she can just be a little..."

"self-centred? narrow-minded? stop me whenever," annabeth suggested. she, too, loved piper, but sometimes the girl had problems with opinions and worldviews that weren't her own. it was fine. everyone had a fatal flaw, and annabeth supposed that was piper's.

leo seemed embarrassed at the descriptions, but nodded anyway. "i guess so," he said, moving his queen over to her king. she gritted her teeth and moved her king to knock over his queen, and he reached over to slide his rook across the board. realisation dawned on her just as he pushed her king off the board with the castle-shaped piece. "checkmate," leo declared smugly.

"huh," annabeth said. she chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to figure out where she went wrong at the first loss she'd had in a long time. "wow. good job. you beat me." she stood up and brushed all the pieces into the board, folding it in half and clicking it in place. "i'm glad, honestly. that was fun. i have to go now, but do you want to play again sometime?"

"that'd be fun!" leo chirped, before waving goodbye as she tucked the board under her arm and left. in the back of annabeth's mind she thought that next time she'd challenge him to a sword-fighting match - at least then it would be a definite win.

**Author's Note:**

> YES i know that logically leo is probably more intelligent than strategic but please don't mistake me for someone who cares


End file.
